San Francisco: Day 7

Our last full day in San Francisco started off well, but ended up being catastrophically disastrous. We started off our day meeting my cousin at the Ferry Building (again) for lunch.

Ahi Poke Crispy Tacos from Gott’s Roadside at the Ferry Building

Oysters from Hog Island Oyster Company in the Ferry Building

Our plan after lunch was to visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but upon arrival, we discovered that they’re closed on Wednesdays. This was extremely upsetting, especially for J since she is an art history student. We ended up browsing the SFMOMA gift shop and enjoying their free wifi for almost 2 hours.

We decided to expand our horizons and take the Muni bus into the Mission for dinner. Being delicate flowers and spoiled children, this was a huge achievement for us. Having known that the Mission is famous for its Mexican food, we had found El Farolito Taqueria from online reviews before our trip.

On a side note, the foodies over at SF Chowhound are seriously intense about their burritos. Their heated debates are comparable to those found in political forum threads and foodie credibility is legitimately questioned.

Anyway, this joint has over 2000 reviews on Yelp, so we had very high expectations! I was surprised to find that El Farolito was very dive-y and in a pretty sketchy looking block. I ordered carnitas and carne asada tacos, which were alright but I didn’t love them. I’m probably too used to the Americanized version of Mexican food though.

Carnitas and carne asada tacos from El Farolito

We were a little nervous to stay around the Mission after dark. Luckily, El Farolito is right next to a BART station, so after our SFMOMA failure and sketchy dinner location, we decided we needed to re-introduce some luxury in our life and ventured back to Union Square. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, most of the nicer department stores like Barney’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus were closing. Fail. Our only option was Macy’s, where we discovered a Benefit Brow Bar and after a quick discussion, we decided we would get our brows done to get something out of our day. Unfortunately, they had stopped taking appointments a few hours before we arrived, so again – fail.

My only consolation that day was a slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory on the top floor of Macy’s.

Strawberry Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory

On our last morning in San Francisco, we walked up the street from our hotel to Farm:Table (read Farm to Table) for breakfast. We’d read another tourist’s review of their kouign amann – a buttery pastry/cake originating from Brittany, France – and were enticed to try it out. Unfortunately, Farm:Table didn’t have kouign amann that morning since their menu offerings change every day. In addition to the breakfast sandwich, I was able try out their caramelized pear and almond bread pudding, which was quite good (but not as good as Bouchon’s).

We were surprised to experience so much kindness from strangers and locals… and they say Canadians are the “nice” ones. I can’t say much about Hong Kong (no offense, but based on my experiences in HK, you locals are rude). Torontonians are merely polite, whereas the people we talked to in SF were genuinely nice. Maybe it’s the whole West Coast chill culture thing. All in all, I had an amazing time in San Francisco bonding and spending time with my roommate J and my cousin O, doing lots of shopping, indulging my inner foodie, enjoying the change in climate, and taking in the sights of the beautiful city.